If you're a MasterCard user you could be getting £400 compensation

Wouldn't it be nice to be handed £400? Yes, yes it would. So there might be some good news coming your way if you're a MasterCard user.

In a UK collective action over card charges that were passed on to shoppers, users of the card could be getting themselves £400 in compensation.

MasterCard is facing a claim of up to £19billion in damages for charging unlawfully high interchange fees to stores for 16 years, which were passed on to consumers in the form of inflated prices for goods and services.

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Very naughty.

This claim, which is being led by former financial services ombudsman Walter Merricks is to be filed under the new Consumer Rights Act 2015. This allows for collective damages claims.

He's saying that total damages caused to UK consumers could be as much as £19billion, which equates to hundreds of pounds for each shopper.

He said: "To be clear, there is no question that MasterCard acted illegally in the way it conducted its business, a business that affects all of us. All of us over-paid to the tune of up to £19billion during a period lasting 16 years.

"Although most of us did not know this, experts who study the retail economy knew it was happening – and so did MasterCard.

But MasterCard said it 'firmly disagrees' with the basis of the claim.